


In The Name Of Love & Mystery

by ProfessionalTsundere



Category: Gravity Falls, School Mermaid
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Curses, Exorcisms, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, Our Mermaids Are Different, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-11-17 19:59:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18105422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessionalTsundere/pseuds/ProfessionalTsundere
Summary: There are three certainties regarding this job. 1) There’s a curse, 2) Girls have gone missing, and 3) Mabel and Dipper are on the case!





	1. The Setup

Client: Hidemi Ryuugasaki

Job: Break the mermaid curse.

Initial Information:

  * mermaids attack those who feel a mutual love
  * you either eat or become mermaid’s flesh by sunrise
  * only those who have chanted the spell can see the mermaids



~———~

_ Mermaid. Mermaid. I beg of you. _

_ Make my love come true. _

_ Give for me your flesh and blood. _

——

“Nothing happened.” Dipper said, an annoyed look forming.

“Maybe I could try doing it?”

“No way Mabel, not after what happened in Australia.”

“That was  _ completely _ different. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah… no. Remember what Mrs. Ryuugasaki said? If you don’t eat their flesh you’re trapped forever.”

“And you can use magic to break the bonds, I know.” The twins stared at each other for a moment before Mabel spoke again. “So what’s the plan bro-bro?”

Dipper stared at the pool before them, brow furrowed. “Probably a proximity spell around here. Might be difficult to key it into the right parameters though, not to mention the amount of magic to maintain it…”

“How about placing one of those effigy’s as a medium? That way you can refill your mana during the day.”

“Not mana.” Dipper said, more on instinct than anything, “but otherwise… That could work. Thanks Mabel!”

——

“We may have to look into other avenues.” Mabel said, watching her brother start meditating for the 3rd evening in a row. “I’m going to talk to Mrs. Ryuugasaki again.”

Receiving no response from Dipper, which wasn’t a big surprise considering, she fired off an email to their client asking for a meeting.

The next day found Mabel waiting at a small cafe while Dipper rested.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” Hidemi Ryuugasaki said, pulling up a chair.

“Don’t worry, I just got here myself!” Mabel waiting for Hidemi to sit down and the waitress to take their order before speaking again. “We can’t get the mermaids to appear. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“Nanae Suzuki.” Hidemi said after a while. “She’s the nurse who first gave me the note, though I don’t know what good it’ll do.”

“That might be just what we need!” Mabel grabbed the older woman’s hands, excited. “You gotta tell me everything you know about her!”

“W-well it’s not much. Let’s see, she’s qualified to be a nurse, should be in her late 50’s by now… Oh! She’s very vain and has a wound across her mouth, like a Kuchisake-onna. I might have caused that one.” Mabel made sure to write down everything Hidemi was saying.

“This is great! Hmm… Can you tell me any more about the mermaid’s themselves or the curse?”

“... Before Suzuki-san left the school there were quite a few disappearances. The last one was Hayashi-sempai, and I saw her that night.” The japanese woman’s hands were clasp together, her skin paling. “I’m sorry, it’s just-”

“Hey, it’s cool. You survived that night and the info you’ve given me will make sure no one goes through that ever again. You can believe in us.”

“Thank you, Pines-san. Let me pay for this.”

“Nah, I got it.”

——

“Dipdop, fire up that laptop because we have research to go through!” Mabel yelled as she entered their temporary lodgings. She unloaded her backpack onto the table, taking out the plasticine effigy and a stack of newspapers.

“Wha- Mabel it’s like…. Two. Let me sleep…”

“You can sleep tonight! We’ve wasted enough time staking out a dead end!”

“Dead end? Just-” Dipper was cut off as a glass was thrust into his hands. Groggily, he drank the concoction before coughing. “Fuck!”

“Good morning!”

Dipper said nothing as he pulled a plastic dinosaur out of his mouth.

“So I went to meet Mrs. Ryuugasaki this morning and I’ve come up with a breakthrough!”

Once her brother had eaten something and logged into his laptop, Mabel explained her thinking. Now all that was left was to research recent missing persons and Suzuki’s possible location.


	2. The Payoff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Truth be told this story was started years ago, like back when Sock Opera first aired years ago. I just never had the motivation or ideas to finish it until recently.

Supplementary Information:

  * Nanae Suzuki seems to be the source of the curse
  * Girls who become mermaids are listed as Missing Persons



~———~

“Weapons?”

“Bat, crowbar, and grappling hook! Spellbooks?”

“For curses and spirit appeasement. Let’s get started.”

The twins hopped the high schools gate with practised ease, gear in tow. The atmosphere around them was sickeningly sweet, cloying the twins senses.

“Yikes. How has no one noticed this before?”

“I don't think many people are around schools at ten, Mabel. Come on, this is already starting to give me a headache.”

“You mages are so squishy. The pool is that way!” Mabel handed Dipper the crowbar and started following the map on her phone. It was a quick jog to the back of the school where the pool was located. When the twins reached the empty basin Dipper paused and reached into his pocket.

“Glasses on.” He said, handing a pair to his sister. When they were donned the lenses glowed faint blue for a moment before fading, signalling the enchantment activating.

“There’s a book here, should be enough latent energy to-”

“Dipper.” He looked up at him name, looking at the scene before him.

“There’s dozens of them.” The horror in his voice was evident.

“Do that trace, quick! We need to find the girl!”

 

The next hour was a frenzy of movement. From looking for a teenager who knew the building layout like the back of her hand to avoiding getting hit by the piranha faced mermaids, Dipper and Mabel had their work cut out for them. 

“Homerun!” Mabel yelled, sending a mermaid flying through a wall. A muffled yelp from the room beyond said wall caused the twins to look at each other in victory for that sound distinct from the inhuman screeches the mermaids made. The two rushed into the room, Mabel doing a hasty parry at the knife that flew at her.

“Stay back!” The girl’s eyes widened as she saw Dipper, “You… You better get out of here or I’ll call the cops!” She reached for something before blanching, realising that her knife was on the other side of the twins.

“Grab her.”

“I’ll screa-” One of Mabel’s hands was over the girls mouth, cutting her off, the other restraining the girl against Mabel’s chest. Dipper had opened one of the books and was chanting, eyes slightly glowing. The girls struggles lessened until she slumped forward in Mabel’s arms.

“Oof- Can you open up that locker, bro bro?” Mabel stored the girl inside the cleaning locker as Dipper started inscribing runes into its exterior.

“Okay, that’s one problem dealt with.” Mabel said, patting the locked locker. “And for once you’re not the one in the locker! Tonight’s just full of accomplishments Dipper!”

“Yay.” He said, runes glowing the same blue that the glasses did earlier. “Glad to know I’m making up for my stereotypical high school bullying experience.”

“There’s a map in here so do you wanna take a minute to regroup?”

Dipper set up a desk and two chairs before swallowing a couple of aspirin for his growing headache while Mabel collected the emergency map and some whiteboard markers from around the room.

“Time?”

“11:40.”

“So we’ve been here for an hour and seventeen minutes and in that time knocked out… like 30? Let’s say 30 mermaids, as well as ‘explored’ the entire first floor. We’ve got half of the second floor done and the entire third floor to cover.” As Dipper talked Mabel drew over the places they had already been on the second floor.

“We have approximately six hours until sunrise. Can you tell if there are any other students here?”

“I don’t think so, but the aura is still too thick to do a proper scan.”

“Then let’s finish this floor and go onto the next! If we split up on the third we can cover more ground.”

“Sounds good. Ugh, I wish I remembered the incense sticks right now.”

“Then let’s finish this. I declare this meeting over! Investigation: Start!”

The twins left the classroom, mission in mind. Unfortunately, exploration of the last bits of the school went smoothly, aside from a couple mermaid attacks, leaving them lost as to what to do.

“I think that was the last one,” Mabel said, looking at the mermaid she just roundhouse kicked.

“So we have the caster contained, all the mermaids are knocked unconscious, a couple hours, and  _ no clues _ .” Dipper groaned, dropping onto a set of stairs. “We’ve search every room in the building and still not found the source.”

“The outside then?”

“Nope. Remember we ended up doing a lap trying to find the entrance. I didn’t see any aberrations back then. Plus it’d take to much time to go down there and do a proper search.”

Mabel’s eyes lit up as an idea came to her. She took off her backpack and started rooting around, looking for the one tool she needed.

“If searching by the ground won’t work we just need to we look from above! Behold, grappling hook!” Mabel walked over to the window as Dipper rose, alarmed.

“Nope, not doing that again. Not after last time! I’m-” Dipper paused, eyes searching for something. “Taking the door!” He walked up the stairs he was previously resting on, ignoring Mabel’s self satisfied smirk, and-

“Ow!”

Walked right into a barrier, less than an inch away from the door. He rubbed his nose, glaring.

“You knew that was there.”

“No time to waste! Grappling hook, away!” Mabel said as she grabbed her brothers hand and leaned out the window, shooting the hook as her balance started to tip.

“Don’t ignore the question!”

  
  


The twins stared at the figure kneeling on the roof, a stare which it returned in kind... as well as a something without eyes could stare back.

“Well this is anticlimactic! After all the trouble it’s just a regular ghost!”

“Not so regular, it’s still got a tether to its body.” Dipper paused. “And it’s got the same spectral signature as this book. Looks like we found our source.”

“So if we banish it they curse’ll end? Got it.” Mabel grabbed a small package from her pocket, tearing it open and throwing it at the spirit. “Pocket salt! Go away!”

The spirit let out a piercing scream as it’s aura blanketed the area. Dipper gave his sister an unimpressed look as she shrugged.

“Oops.”

Hideous screeching and high pitched squeals emanated from below, harmonising with the spirits screams. Slowly, more and more of the piranha faced ‘mermaids’ rose from the floor, surrounding the area.

“Yeah, ‘oops’. Time for a tactics switch.” Dipper took off his glasses, pocketing them as he ran straight through where the mermaids were previously. When he reached the door he turned back to Mabel, who was swinging her bat around. “They can’t hit those who can’t see!” He yelled at her, reaching into his pocket.

“Good because they aren’t going down like before! Please tell me you got a plan!”

“I’m gonna drag it back to its body.”

“Dipper!”

“Don’t worry, I came prepared!” He pulled out two pairs of handcuffs and attached one to a length of pipe running alongside the wall. “I’ll be restrained this time!” Mabel still had a troubled expression but nodded towards Dipper, giving her consent.

“Don’t get lost this time!”

——

Astral projection would always feel odd to Dipper. Like combining the lack of gravity, freedom from his body, and transference to another plane was super disorientating. It especially didn’t help when, upon leaving his body, Dipper could hear nothing but screams.

_ “Kill me! Please kill me!” _

_ “Make it stop! I never wanted this!” _

_ “Leave me alone! I still haven’t had my revenge!” _

The mermaids cries shook Dipper to his core and drove him onward, over the crowd moving only by the will of a puppeteers strings, towards the spirit that held the key to freeing the souls from their fate.

Taking care not to be noticed, he channelled power into his arms and pushed the spirit from it’s spot. A side swipe with his leg destroyed the fragile roots binding it to the building. Despite this the spirit refused to leave, one hand clawed at its glasgow grin as the other fervently held onto the sole remaining bond. Dipper tried to lift the spirit, to force it to follow its thread back to its body, but it refused to budge.

Meanwhile, the attacks on Mabel ceased when their strings were cut, freeing the mermaids. Most adopted a blank, vapid expression as they left for other parts of the school, if they could move at all, but a few remained on the roof. One in particular stared at Dipper as he struggled with the spirit before walking over to his empty body. Motioning Mabel over, the bespectacled mermaid mimed opening a book. Mabel, understandably, was cautious as she approach, wary of any violent acts. The mermaid let out an impatient 'Squee’, which Dipper heard to be ‘ _ Hurry up _ ’.

Dipper spared a glance at the two as he adjusted his grip on the spirit, it was now trying to crawl its way over to the pony-tailed mermaid. Luckily Mabel got there first, following the mermaids instructions and burning the tattered notebook.

As the books ashes floated down the final bond the spirit had to the school building, to the curse, vanished into nothingness, leaving only its fragile tether to life.

“I’ll go set up a circle around the girl from before.” Mabel announced to the empty air after ensuring Dipper’s body was in a more comfortable position. “Get back soon.”

Dipper responded with an unseen nod as his sister walked down the steps, barrier blocking the door now gone. With a huff he hauled the struggling spirit over his shoulder, thankful for all the times Grunkle Stan made him chop wood back at the shack.

Taking the spirit back to its body was a simple task, it’s struggles a non-issue, and returning any sort of spirit to its natural shell didn’t take more than just throwing it in. It was harder to memorise the address and find his way back to the school (Did I take a left at this 7-11 or the one two blocks north?) but Dipper made it with enough time to tie up the loose end before he and Mabel left the school forever (hopefully).

Once Dipper had returned to his body and walked down to the second floor classroom he saw the girl they had knocked out earlier laying in a basic circle. One quick chant later and she was free from the curse, the lasts bits of sweet aura fading for good.

“Finally,” Dipper sighed, shoulders sagging. He had used more magic than he wanted to tonight and it was starting to wear on him. “Let’s go to bed. I’ll set up the teleportation circle when we wake up.”

“The government does get antsy when we’re quiet for a week. I’ll email Mrs. Ryuugasaki so let’s make this mission down as complete!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the absolute most certain thing about this ending was that i wanted dipper to astral project and yeet Nanae’s ikiryō back into her body. then i realized how it’d be bad writing to just have them solve this peacefully and had to buff the ikiryō.
> 
> thinking about it, i’ve actually gotten pretty rusty at writing. like i’m pretty sure i only regained my flow halfway through the latter half of the second chapter, tho i think i’ll always be bad at endings.
> 
> also if you hate my writing of gravity falls characters dont worry, this is (probably) the last time i'll write for this fandom. ive cancelled all ideas of this two-shot being apart of a series.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. I’m bad a writing Mabel, BUT THAT’S NOT STOPPING ME!


End file.
